Bountiful Baskets part 2

Not much going on at the ranch right now. The spring winds have arrived and so have my allergies. I don't seem to be allergic to the plants and trees but am pretty sure it is the dust I am allergic to. Oh well, no use crying altho it might make my eyes feel better. I did laundry yesterday and hung it on the line. When it was dry, the wind was blowing and by the time I got the clothes off the line, my eyes felt awful! We had our neighbors Don and Nancy over for dinner and all evening, I was scratching and digging at my eyes as the left one overflowed with tears. I've been using Flonase which does wonders on runny noses. This morning I took an allergy pill, used Flonase and put allergy eye drops in my eyes. Nancy and I went to Springerville/Eagar to pick up our food baskets and I was still dabbing at my eye.

Really, people, you need to check out BountifulBaskets.org.  This time I ordered the juice pack, hostess pack , the regular pack and 5 loaves of 9 grain bread for $49.50. All the produce is top of the line and so fresh, it could reach up and slap you in the face. We got butter lettuce,2 celery, rosemary, ginger, basil, bananas, pineapple, oranges, tangerines, apples, avacados, grapefruit, zuchinni, carrot, asparagus, avacados,  a burpless cuke, bag of red potatoes, parsley, spinach, brocolli, a beet, onions ,lemons, limes , radishes, and a mini watermelon. There's probably a few things I forgot. Nancy was pretty impressed and said next time, she will order a couple other packs. Much better quality than you can get at the store. It is nation wide so I'm sure you can find a delivery place near you. Today, I volunteered to fill baskets so got an extra pineapple as a thank you. Check it out!!!!

My bookshelves arrived from Target. I was leery of what the quality would be but they are very nice!

They are 30 inches wide and 6 feet tall. I usually like things in a wood finish but thought white would look cleaner (until the dust settles on them) . I love them! They are sturdy and have no problem holding tons of card stock. Pa and I put the first one together. It came with step by step instructions and each step had a certain number of hardware pieces to go with it and were in their own little packets. Can we just say, Pa referred to the instructions once or twice and put it together the way he thought it should go. Packets be damned! Fortunately, everything went together just fine.

 These pictures are out of order but here is the almost finished piece.

 various shelves

 Coming out of the box. Notice the open front door? It was such a lovely day with the temps close to 70.

Two bookcases in my craft room! I am sorting as I go and have all my 12x12 card stock on the shelves. Now onto the  8 1/2 x 11 and I should have room for other things as well. I still have some birthday money left and went to order another one and they aren't on sale anymore!!!!! With free shipping!!!!!! So I'll have to keep an eye on Target so I can find it on sale again. Did I mention I put the second bookcase all together by myself? And I did follow the instructions, step by step and opened each hardware packet as it was called for. I'm such a rule follower! Pa makes his own rules. Makes for an interesting relationship.....

Due to a fantastic deal Pa got on a roto tiller, the garden is all tilled and ready to go. I arranged my boxes, I really need more, and planted some seeds in the house, cabbage, brocolli, tomatoes and some lettuce. Next week, I'll start the viney things. They usually grow so fast, they start blooming in the house. My apple and peach trees will arrive next week. I uncovered the box where the strawberries were plus some onions and lo and behold, the strawberries are alive and so are the onions! There were only 5 strawberry plants but 25 more should come in the mail soon. My rhubarb is coming up also. We haven't seen any signs of the asparagus so hope it made it thru the winter. If it can survive along side the road in Illinois in the winter, it should survive here. I still can't get enthused about the garden but hopefully when I get going, I'll enjoy fighting the potato bugs, tomato worms, birds and mice AND rabbits.

Pa has seen 3 wolves out here! Did  I mention that in my last post?  Maybe that's why I don't like to go walking by myself. I'm trying to find a hand gun I'm more comfortable with to take on walks but haven't found "the one" yet.

Lawsy mercy! I've gotta go and put some more eye drops in my eye. It feels like I need to take it out, rinse it in the sink and put it back in my eye socket. Just my luck, it would roll down the drain, never to be seen again!
Toodles! 

Bountiful Basket Update

Neither rain nor snow or sleet or hail will keep us from getting our food! In spite of the weather, we had to go to Springerville today to pick up our Bountiful Basket order or lose the money. If you don't show up, they donate it to charity. It was snowing like crazy but not sticking.  One mile of the road getting out of the ranch was nothing but snot so we slipped and slid all over but got in and out of the ranch ok. My poor truck is covered in mud.
This is what we got in our basket:
2 celery
1 boc choy
1 lb of strawberries
4 green peppers
9 bananas
1 bunch asparagus
1 lettuce
3 mangos
1 big clove garlic
7 mini pears
That was $15.00 and for an extra $10.00 we got 5 loaves of various bread. Basha's Grocery was having a sale on Chuck roast for $1.88 a pound so we bought four of those.

This big puppy was $47 and change and we paid $14.00 so how could we resist a sale like this? I cut them in half , wrapped them twice and froze them. If nothing else, I can grind it up for hamburger. I love sales like this. We have to eat so I don't feel guilty spending the money. Now, if it were for a new purse, the guilt would set in.  I don't think I would go 110 miles round trip just for $15.00 worth of produce but with meat sales thrown in and lunch out with Pa makes it worth while.

The weather man said it was supposed to clear up today. The weather man has no idea what he's talking about!!!!!  It has snowed off and on all day. It isn't sticking at least so I guess we should be grateful. I'm just ready for Spring! Where the heck is it? I'm just glad we don't have to go anywhere till Wednesday. Hopefully things will dry out a bit or else I'm not going. We have plenty of food to keep us going for a couple of months. Except I forgot to buy potatoes. OH well!

Chocolate Pie and Bluebirds

Lawsy Mercy, where has the time gone? Living out here in the middle of nowhere, we never seem to know what day it is so you'd think the time would just drag by. Not at all!!! Time goes by so fast, it is scary! My birthday was Feb 22nd . On my birthday, I usually look in the mirror, examine my face and say to myself, "My mom has to have made a mistake on my birth certificate. I can't possibly be this old!"  I don't think like an old person, act like an old person and people tell me I don't look like an old person either. But ya have to accept facts, so this year, I didn't look in the mirror and go thru my usual birthday routine. Pa has a birthday on Friday and he will be 71. My GAWD, I'm married to an old man!!!!!!! But let me tell ya, that old man can out work men half his age. He can cook too!

Is this not the most beautiful chocolate meringue pie you've ever seen? Everything except the pie crust was made from scratch. Pa found the meringue recipe in an old cook book. At some point you cook the meringue on top of the stove before putting it on the pie to bake in the oven. It doesn't shrink or weep and tastes delicious.

For the month of February, Tilly killed 12 rabbits in the garden! Believe it or not, it hasn't even made a dent in the rabbit population around here. She killed one last night so the tally for March has begun. She usually won't let go of it but as soon as she killed it, she lost interest so we didn't have a tug of war.

Tom came over yesterday to say he was going to the abandoned property where we get our horse fertilizer. He needed some for his garden. I volunteered to go with him to help him shovel it in. We got a big pick up load full. By the time we were done, I was feeling my age. I was tired for the rest of the day. Pa volunteered to reheat the chicken and noodles we had the night before for dinner. I appreciated that very much!

After a week of no birds in the yard, we had Robins, Western and Mountain Bluebirds, Redshafted Flickers and Pipets at the bird bath yesterday. All the Bluebirds wanted to take a bath so water was flying everywhere. They pretty much emptied the bird bath.

 The Robins were in the front yard.

 The Flicker was in the back yard.

 Bluebirds everywhere! Some of them are sooooo blue!

 I really laughed watching them try to bathe with so many birds in the bird bath.

 I used to fill the one that's sitting on the upturned clay pot with bird seed but it seemed they needed the water the most.

 And I thought they needed to work for their food so I just throw it on the ground so they can scratch for it. That way, the Blue Jay's can't just stand there and scoop up whole mouthfuls.

 If I remember correctly, the Mountain Bluebirds are pretty much all blue and the Western Bluebirds have some red on their breast.

 I have joined Bountiful Baskets.Org
It is a food co-op and is nation wide. For $15.00 you get a basket of half fruit/half veggies. For $10.00 or $12.00 extra, you get 5 loaves of bread. You can get other things also like 40 pounds of tomatoes, oranges, a juice basket filled with fruits that you can juice. My BFF Katie got one and said everything is wonderful. Unfortunately they don't deliver to St. Johns so I will have to go to Springerville to pick it up. I told Pa that we could go together and have dinner while we were there. We could have a delivery to St. Johns if we got enough people to order so maybe sometime in the future, I'll see about that.

You who know me, know I'm all about bargains. I recently bought three dog beds and new bras from this site: http://1saleaday.com/
They have some awesome deals but you have to check every day because each day is different.

Pa went to Show Low this morning and will be gone most of the day. It's nice to have the house all to myself for a change. He's usually out side doing man things anyway so I really have the house to myself  most of the time. I'll go to Show Low next Wednesday which is pay day to stock up on stuff. There are a few "Preppers" out here. They all tell me I should start prepping in case of doomsday. I have enough for a couple of months and if times got really bad, I would have no problem helping myself to one of the rancher's cows. But we never seem to have extra cash to start buying those number 10 cans of dried stuff to store away. We joke with Tom and tell him we'll just come over and steal his supply. Survival of the fittest. That was kind of the idea I had to have a garden and buy heirloom seeds. I never get enough garden goodies to harvest seeds!  I am not eagerly looking forward to gardening this year. I did buy seeds tho and ordered two apple trees and a peach tree and some strawberry plants. Maybe if I have better gardening luck this summer, I'll get my mojo back.

My daughter sent me a book for my birthday. "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young. It is a daily book of 2 minute devotionals. I really love it and added it to my daily Bible reading. I'm still plowing thru the old Testament. I make it sound like a chore but I really enjoy the history as well as the messages and promises we can apply to our daily lives.

Speaking of mojo, I need to get some for crafting. I'm tired of playing on my computer, tired of reading and tired of crafting. I think it's just a case of spring fever. I want to be outside and go exploring. Speaking of outside.....my laundry is done so I had better sign off and hang the clothes out on the line.
Until next time!